IASC Weekly (GVA): 1) The REACH Initiative: web mapping for improved assessment and 2) Country update: Chad
Geneva
Meeting Documents
1. The REACH Initiative: web mapping for improved assessment
Francesco Pisano, Manager of UNOSAT, and Vincent Annoni, REACH-Global Coordinator, will present on REACH Global, an initiative of ACTED, Impact Initiatives and UNITAR/UNOSAT that combines UNOSAT mapping skills with the field assessment competencies of ACTED and its partners to provide support to the Shelter Cluster. Other Clusters can benefit from this technology based initiative that has already been successful in a number of disasters and complex emergencies.
Background
REACH is an innovative tool that combines the usefulness of modern information technology, such as GIS, satellite analysis and web mapping, with rapid and well developed assessment methodologies. REACH was born in 2010 as a joint initiative of two INGOs (IMPACT Initiatives and ACTED) and one UN program (UNOSAT). REACH’s purpose is to promote and facilitate the development of information products that enhance the humanitarian community’s decision making and planning capacity for emergency, reconstruction and development contexts, supporting and working within the framework of the humanitarian reform process. REACH’s overall objective is to enhance the effectiveness of planning and coordination by aid actors in countries that are in crisis or at-risk of crisis. REACH meets its objectives by promoting and facilitating the effective collection, organisation, processing and dissemination of key data to inform aid action. At global level, REACH partners with humanitarian coordination platforms (notably the clusters) in order to strengthen tools and methodologies related to: secondary data review; primary data-collection through assessment and remote sensing; data-storage; data-processing into maps and reports, capitalisation and dissemination of data. At country level, REACH teams are deployed to countries in crisis or at-risk-of-crisis in order to facilitate interagency collection, processing and dissemination of key humanitarian data. Country-level deployments are conducted in the framework of partnerships with aid coordination bodies, including UN agencies, clusters, inter-cluster initiatives, and other interagency initiatives.
2. Country update: Chad
Thomas Gurtner, Humanitarian Coordinator in Chad, will present the current humanitarian challenges in the transition context of Chad.
3. AOB